People, governments across Mideast hail Egypt's revolution

by Zeina Karam - Feb. 12, 2011 12:00 AMAssociated Press

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Revelers swept joyously into the streets across the Middle East on Friday after Hosni Mubarak stepped down as Egypt's president. From Beirut to Gaza, tens of thousands handed out candy, set off fireworks and unleashed celebratory gunfire. The governments of Jordan, Iraq and Sudan sent their blessings.

Even in Israel, which had watched Egypt's 18-day uprising against Mubarak with some trepidation, a former Cabinet minister said Mubarak did the right thing. "The street won. There was nothing that could be done. It's good that he did what he did," former Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who knew Mubarak well and spoke to him just a day earlier, told Israel TV's Channel 10.

The boisterous street celebrations erupted within moments of the dramatic announcement by Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman that Mubarak had stepped down. The success of Egypt's protesters in ousting a longtime ruler came less than a month after a pro-democracy movement in Tunisia pushed dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali into exile in Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14.

The breakneck speed of developments, after decades of authoritarian rule in many Arab countries, left some of those celebrating Friday wondering where regime change might come next.

"We are very happy today that we were able to overcome the dictator Hosni Mubarak. Tomorrow will be the turn of the dictators in the entire Arab world," said Issam Allawi, an Egyptian celebrating with dozens outside the Egyptian Embassy in Beirut.

In Tehran, Iran's president declared that Egypt's uprising shows a new Middle East is emerging that will doom Israel and break free of American "interference," even as the government clamps down harder on its own domestic opposition movement.

Iran has sought to portray the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt as a replay of its 1979 Islamic revolution, whose anniversary was marked Friday by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech and state-organized rallies that included chants of support for Egypt's protests.

"Despite all the (West's) complicated and satanic designs ... a new Middle East is emerging without the Zionist regime and U.S. interference, a place where the arrogant powers will have no place," Ahmadinejad told a crowd filling Tehran's Azadi, or Freedom, Square.

Two of Egypt's closer neighbors, Israel and the Palestinian territories, followed the historic moment with great interest.

Israel's greatest concern in the past two weeks has been that its 1979 peace treaty with Egypt might not survive under a new government, particularly if Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the largest and most organized opposition group, arises.